In early 2026, revelations surfaced about Medicaid officials improperly sharing personal data with ICE, which subsequently passed this data to the analytics company Palantir. This situation drew significant attention as new court documents highlighted the extent of the data exchange.
Palantir is known for operating the ELITE app, utilized by ICE to locate addresses of noncitizens who could face deportation. The situation gained public attention following a motion by over 20 Democratic attorneys general, who had previously launched a lawsuit against the Trump administration for its data-sharing practices between Medicaid Services and ICE.
In late 2025, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria ruled in favor of allowing health officials to share certain immigrant details from Medicaid data with ICE, including home addresses and other personal information. However, the ruling was limited to states involved in the lawsuit. But by May 2026, it became apparent that CMS shared data that exceeded the court’s allowance.
A particularly concerning dataset included refugee information from Minnesota, which inadvertently contained U.S. citizens’ data. Another dataset from January included millions of people, many of whom were legally present in the country.
Confidential court filings detailed that while ICE was ordered to delete the improperly shared data, issues persisted. ICE acknowledged that some copies continued to exist, emphasizing challenges in ensuring total data removal.
In response to these findings, the Justice Department requested an expansion of the order to provide ICE with broader access to noncitizen data, potentially including all immigrants except legal permanent residents or citizens. Democratic attorneys general opposed this, citing ICE’s mishandling of data as a key concern.
Palantir did not respond to inquiries about deleting the data provided by ICE. Likewise, DHS did not comment on the data transfer. California Deputy Attorney General Anna Rich revealed that federal officials assured that the data shared via Microsoft Teams was deleted. She presented a redacted transcript showing ICE’s request to Palantir to erase the dataset.
Judge Chhabria’s previous warning to federal authorities highlighted the issue’s gravity, stating their continued use of Medicaid data for deportation was contingent on proper data handling. The evolving situation underscores significant privacy and legal challenges surrounding the handling of sensitive information.